INTERVIEW: Russian customs to become fully digitalized by 2020

BEIJING, Feb 12 (PRIME) -- RussiaТs Federal Customs Service is fulfilling a comprehensive development program to become fully electronic by 2020, First Deputy Director Ruslan Davydov told PRIME in an interview on Monday.

УRussiaТs Federal Customs Service is implementing an overall development program until 2020 and weТre transferring to centers of electronic declaration. We already have a 100% electronic declaration. Automatic registration and issuance are implemented without any involvement of a human being: if risks do not work, a declaration is registered and issued,Ф Davydov said.

The service uses advanced technologies of control, but there is still a problem with equipment at checkpoints due to the lack of investment.

Jointly with Russian Post, a national postal operator, the authority will kick off an experiment in 2018 to charge customs duties for cross-border trade automatically. УWeТll track goods for individuals with a price of more than 1,000 euros, which are subject to customs fees, automatically. Russian Post will cooperate with trading platforms, including Chinese ones, where buyers declare a real cost,Ф Davydov said.

The customs service supports a unified duty-free threshold for e-commerce within the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.

УCertainly, if we have an economic union, regulation should be the same: the sanctions, the thresholds, and other sensitive issues for economy,Ф the official said.

A duty-free threshold for cross-border e-commerce will amount 1,000 euros in Russia until the end of 2018, and reduced to 500 euros from January 1, 2019, and to 200 euros from January 1, 2020.

УThere is a provision that the countries could follow with their own rates, but stick to the controlling point. We have different thresholds now. It is at 1,000 euros in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, 400 euros in Armenia, and Belarus in 2016 made it 22 euros, like in the E.U.,Ф Davydov said.